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Living Peacefully
by Wayne Dyer
46th
Verse
When
the world has the Way,
running horses are retired to till the fields.
When the world lacks the Way,
warhorses are bred in the countryside.
There is no greater loss than losing the Tao,
no greater curse than covetousness,
no greater tragedy than discontentment;
the worst of faults is wanting more – always.
Contentment alone is enough.
Indeed, the bliss of eternity
can be found in your contentment
If you’re presently
evaluating your level of achievement based on how much you’ve
accumulated, prepare to sense a major shift in your state of personal
satisfaction and contentment. Verse 46 of the Tao Te Ching invites you
to discover a more peaceful and self-satisfying way of knowing success
and as your determination to acquire more begins to weaken, your new
views will change the world you’ve known. You’ll find that the
experience of inner peace becomes your true gauge of accomplishment.
This 46th verse begins
with a look at what happens when a planet loses its connection to the
Way. Countries begin needing to conquer more territory... and in their
quest for more land, power and control over others, they must constantly
prepare for war. Lao-tzu speaks symbolically of horses here: When
connected to the Tao, the animals fertilize the fields; when
disconnected from it, the beautiful creatures are bred for war.
In a modern translation of
the Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell interprets this message in
present-day terms:
When a country is in
harmony with the Tao, the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled
outside the cities.
It’s painfully obvious
that our world has largely lost contact with the Way as described by
Lao-tzu. These days so much of our energy is placed on breeding
warhorses at the expense of using our resources to fertilize our fields
so that we can live in peace. The United States is chockfull of weapons
of mass destruction and we continually legislate more funding to make
our weapons so menacing that they’re capable of rendering our entire
planet uninhabitable. The “disease of more” has created an environment
that personifies Lao-tzu’s observation that there is “no greater tragedy
than discontentment.” But even if so many of our Divine selves seem to
be engulfed by the flames of unease, you can begin the process of
putting Lao-tzu’s advice to work.
When you truly understand
what it means to live peacefully, satisfaction will begin to replace
your desire for more. Your world will begin to become tranquil as you
change your own life and then touch the lives of your immediate family,
your neighbors, your co-workers and ultimately your nation and the
entire planet. Begin by simply thinking of the opening line of the
famous Prayer of Saint Francis when you notice that you’re demanding
more of anything.
Silently say, “Lord, make
me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love.”
As that instrument of peace, you’ll radiate tranquility to those in your
immediate surroundings and you’ll feel the flicker of a new and
different success in contentment, perhaps for the first time in your
life. By refusing to lose the Tao, regardless of how lost others are and
what our world’s governments elect to do, you’re living harmoniously.
Your connection to the Tao will make a difference, gradually inching
Earth away from the precipice of discontentment that Lao-tzu called “no
greater tragedy.”
The sublime Hafiz
beautifully sums up the kind of success I’m referring to in his poem
Would You Think it Odd?
Would you think it odd if
Hafiz said,
“I am in love with every church
And mosque
And temple
And any kind of shrine
Because I know it is there
That people say the different names
Of the One God.”
Getting back to Lao-tzu,
here are his messages from the powerful 46th verse that are applicable
today in your personal life:
PRACTICE
GRATITUDE AND CONTENTMENT EVERY DAY
When your feet hit the
floor every single morning, without exception, say, “Thank You for an
opportunity to live in a state of contentment.” Invite the magical
energy of the Tao to freely flow through you and inform your responses
throughout the day. You’re in harmony with your Source when you’re
soliciting gratitude and gratification in these ways.
BE ONE WITH YOUR
NATURE
In a world that seems to
produce more and more violence, become a person who chooses to be an
instrument of peace. Let your nature be the “horses” that are bred to
till the fields, feed the hungry and offer comfort to the lame or less
fortunate. Live as if you and the Tao are one, which of course you are
when you’re in your natural state.
When enough of us are able
to do this, we’ll reach a critical mass and eventually the Great Way
will surpass the demands of the ego. I truly believe, to use a baseball
analogy, that nature always “bats last.”
DO THE TAO NOW
Set aside time to make a
conscious effort to send peaceful energy to someone or some group whom
you think of as the enemy. Include a competitor; an alienated family
member; a person of a different religious persuasion; or those you
oppose in a government, political party or disagreement. Then literally
send something to them if that feels OK to you, such as a flower, a book
or a letter. Begin your conscious effort today, right now, to surrender
to the Tao and know authentic success, which has no separation.
Excerpted from The
Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way
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